522 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Our winters are mild; the temperature does not often fall below 

 zero, and when it does it is immediately followed by warmer 

 weather. The grazing season begins in March; sometimes 

 early in April, and continues until December. Pastures of 

 wheat and rye are usually green throughout the winter. Snow 

 seldom lies on the ground more than seven consecutive days. 



To illustrate the open winters I will describe the care my 

 horses receive. They are never stalled at night unless the 

 ground is icy or covered with snow so they can not lie down 

 outside. One winter they were stalled only twelve nights 

 throughout the winter. My stable doors stand open day and 

 night, summer and winter, the year around. The horses go 

 in and out between the pasture and the barn when they please, 

 and if you have ever experimented any along this line you will 

 find they generally prefer to be out, as it is not natural for 

 horses to be housed up. It is wet with cold that hurts horses; 

 cold alone does not. 



Now don't suppose for a moment that I make my horses 

 "rough it" by starving or neglecting them, for I do nothing of 

 that sort. I have just as healthy a lot of horses as anybody. 

 My horses are never sick; I never lost but one horse and he 

 was killed by lightning. I have never had a case of distemper. 

 I never had a colt with lice. My brood mares raise colts reg- 

 ularly every year without fail, and I have never had a colt lose 

 flesh during the weaning process, and I have been breeding 

 horses for ten years — pure-bred drafters for six years. My 

 stallions share the same outdoor life as the mares, and it is 

 generally conceded that I have the surest breeding sire in the 

 country. I am not saying that distemper and lice are un- 

 known in the Ozarks, for unfortunately that is not the case. 

 I am trying to show you what can be done down there with the cli- 

 mate and brains working together. A motto which I work by 

 is this, "Eternal vigilance is the price of good horses." 



The fruit industry which has brought fame to the Ozarks 

 for so many years is, owing to frosts, drouths and other things, 

 being superseded by stock raising and general farming. Dairy- 

 ing is fast becoming the most important and successful line of 

 farming. It is a known fact that those provisions of nature 

 which make dairying profitable will also grow bone and muscle 

 in horses. There are eleven different types of soil in Laclede 

 county. There are farms that are as rich as any in the State 

 of Illinois and there is land so thin and poor and stony that 



